Olanipekun leads over 40 SANs to defend Onnoghen as CCT trial begins

Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) has arrived the Code Conduct Tribunal (CCT), in Abuja, where he is leading over 70 lawyers which include over 40 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), to defend the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen.

Onnoghen is expected to be arraigned today (Monday) at the CCT on a six-count charge bordering principally on failure to declare his assets and operating a domiciliary account.

However, as of 10:00 am when the proceeding was to start, he was not yet seen at the Tribunal premises.

Some of the SANs already seated in court in defence of Onnoghen, awaiting the commencement of the CCT proceedings include, Wole Olanipekun, Kanu Agabi, Chief Chris Uche and Chief Adegboyega Awomolo.

They are to stand in for Onnoghen against other on the side of the prosecution, which are five lawyers led by Aliyu Umar SAN.

The executive secretary of the anti-corruption research data based initiative, Dennis Aghanya, had written a petition against the CJN Onnoghen, alleging amongst others things that the Onnoghen failed to declare ownership of sundry accounts funded through cash deposits made by himself up to August 10, 2016.